Juggling a Career and Child- Alone

Everyone has dreams of their future whether it is having the perfect career, perfect family, and so forth.  However it doesn’t always work out as planned.  It’s not uncommon today to see one parent raising their children on their own.  Although people do it everyday, it’s not easy.  What happens when the child gets sick and you have to miss a day of work, the house chores seem endless and you don’t have the time or energy to clean up, let alone, think about making dinner or having time to yourself?  It’s all part of working full time, being a single parent, and time management.  But what happens when you don’t have the time to do both?

Most parents realize that a great deal of work time is missed due to the child's first year of life.  Usually more than a week of work is missed per child.  However, as time goes on and the child gets older, the amount of work missed decreases.

It’s nice when there are two parents in this situation because you then can decide who can stay home usually based on workload/activity or who has more sick/personal days available.  However when you are a single parent you don’t have much of a choice besides using a sick/personal or vacation day to stay home and care for your child. 

If you can’t stay home due to projects or meetings that can’t be rescheduled here are a few other options you might consider.

1.  Ask a family member or friend to care for your ill child who will usually do it for free or next to nothing.

2.  Have an In-home Nanny.  In home nannies are great because they usually help out with household chores and preparation of meals, however they might be out of your price range.  If they aren’t and your nanny gets sick, contact a friend who uses a nanny and see if they will look after your sick child.

3.  Consider using in-home sick childcare.  It will depend on your area but in some areas, licensed health aides can be hired to come to your home and care for your sick child.  Most times these aides are authorized to take temperatures and manage medications although some are not allowed to manage any medications at all. Certain employers subsidize these services.

4.  Use sick child-care centers.  Usually located in pediatric hospital departments they are particularly helpful with older preschoolers through early elementary school.  However, some sick child-care centers require a 24 hrs notice and won’t accept contagious children such as the chicken pox.  Again, certain employers subsidize this service.

5.  If you work allows it, bring your child to work with you.  Usually your child will be of an older age and only mildly sick.

6.  If your child is old enough and you feel safe, let them stay home alone.  That is of course they aren’t extremely sick where they might need special attention.

7.  Day-care is also another choice where you might find that some daycares accept children on a space-available drop-in basis but it’s usually costly.

If non of these options are feasible and you come to the conclusion that taking a day off of work is your only option you then need to decide what to tell your employer.

Most parents use a paid sick/vacation day when they need to care for their child but often time’s employers would like to know if they are taking a day off for this.  Sometimes especially with being the only parent, your paid time off will be used up and you might have to work later on certain days, take a shorter lunch, go in earlier or even work on the weekends to make up any hours lost. Whatever the case may be, you don’t want to risk losing your position just because your child got ill so make sure to make up any time you missed to prove that you are determined worker. 

Here are some pointers that will free up some time where you can spend with your child opposed to other tasks.

• Get up early and exercise, do any household chores you can, pay bills, or have personal time.


• During your lunch hour use it to run errands such as the post office, dry cleaners, car wash, mall for gifts or things for yourself, and the grocery store for items that won’t spoil in your car.


• Eat lunch at your desk while working.


• Prepare foods for the week so you only need to warm them up when you get home.  That gives you extra time to spend with your child.


• After dinner and putting your child to bed, finish any household chores and then take the time to relax.


• Your weekends should be pretty open besides having to do any laundry or running to the store for perishable items, but this time should be spent with your child as much as you can.

Your child should be the most important aspect in your life, so no matter what it takes, work harder to show your child the love and support he or she needs that usually they would be getting from two parents.